Monthly Archives: July 2009

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These days we are all looking for the best value for our time and resources. I believe that KLRU is an important and valuable organization in our community. That’s why I’m honored to serve the station, and why my family contributes our charitable dollars to KLRU each year.

Tonight we are kicking off a crucial fundraising drive for the station. Over the next 17 days, KLRU needs to raise $240,000 in order to end our fiscal year strong, and to guaranty that your PBS station will begin a new broadcast year with the resources needed to increase our value to you through the programs and services that our community depends on.

I invite you to help us get off to a strong start by taking a moment to give your gift right now at klru.org/support. KLRU and PBS exist for you and answer only to you. Do your part right now to make our station a strong resource and source of pride for everyone in our community.

Sincerely,
Bill Stotesbery
President & CEO

P.S. Don’t forget to help us kick off the 35th Anniversary Season of Austin City Limits by watching KLRU on Sunday at 7 p.m. for a sneak preview of a very special episode of ACL, featuring Willie Nelson and Asleep at the Wheel.

Austin gets a special sneak preview of Austin City Limits with Willie Nelson and Asleep at the Wheel at 7 p.m. Sunday. This live event includes interviews with Ray Benson and is hosted by ACL producer Terry Lickona and Central Texas Gardener producer Linda Lehmusvirta.

The Oak Ridge Boys: A Gospel Journey at 8:30 p.m. Sunday and 6:30 p.m. Saturday features live performances of their best-loved gospel favorites, combined with vintage footage and photos of their 36-year journey together.more →

Program: Austin City Limits with Willie Nelson and Asleep at the Wheel
Time: 7 p.m.
Date: Sunday, August 2

Viewers in Austin will get an early look at a very special new episode of AUSTIN CITY LIMITS featuring Willie Nelson and Asleep at the Wheel, which was taped earlier this year for ACL’s 35th anniversary season. The new episode marks the first time the two recording legends have shared the ACL stage, though both have performed many times separately in the show’s 35-year history. The sneak peek event will air on KLRU-TV in Austin on August 2 at 7:00 pm as part of the PBS channel’s summer pledge drive. It’s the only chance to see the broadcast until it airs nationally on November 14.

Longtime fans of the show might recall that Willie Nelson appeared on the original pilot episode for AUSTIN CITY LIMITS, recorded in October 1974, and Asleep at the Wheel appeared on the first episode of the first official season in 1976. This new episode finds Nelson and Asleep at the Wheel performing songs from their recently released Willie and The Wheel (**** Rolling Stone) as well as classics like “On the Road Again” and “Always on my Mind.”

Viewers making a pledge during the special August 2 broadcast between 7:00 and 9:30 pm will receive Willie Nelson and Asleep at the Wheel thank you gifts, including a limited number of ticket packages to see Asleep at the Wheel at the famed Lukenbach Dance Hall on August 8th.

Additionally KLRU-TV is giving away 100 pairs of tickets to a special simulcast of the August 10 AUSTIN CITY LIMITS taping featuring the Dave Matthews Band. Anyone pledging a gift of $100 or more during the first weekend of the pledge drive will be automatically entered for a chance to receive two tickets.

The 35th anniversary season of AUSTIN CITY LIMITS premieres nationally on October 3 with Dave Matthews Band. Other performers in the new season include Kenny Chesney, Pearl Jam, Elvis Costello, Ben Harper and Relentless7 and more.

By the beginning of the 21st century, the systems of credit, insurance, bond trading and stock markets had transcended all national boundaries to create a truly global economic system, opening the door to unprecedented growth, but also worldwide instability in the event of one nation’s downturn. In an effort to establish more stability following the Great Depression, the U.S. government’s New Deal created a “property owning Democracy,” a system of federally backed savings and loans that allowed more people than ever before to buy homes by offering low interest rates and long-term mortgages. Rampant inflation in the 1970s, however, led the government to remove regulations on interest rates and opened the door to a massive scandal in the 1980s and one of the country’s worst economic crises. The vulnerabilities of America’s property-based economy would be felt again 20 years later, in the current economic crisis that has shaken the world. The crisis threatens “Chimerica,” the symbiotic relationship between China and America in which China’s vast savings from the manufacturing of cheap goods has been lent to America to fuel growth. But at what point will America’s battered economy lead China to cut off its line of credit? And how might America respond? The answer, Ferguson suggests, may be found in the history of the ascent of money.

Time Team America heads to the picturesque and remote canyons of southern Utah to examine what remains of the Fremont Indians who lived there 1,000 years ago. The Fremont stashed their food in clay granaries high on the cliffs of these canyons. They entered their underground homes through a hole in the ceiling, and they decorated rock walls with petroglyphs that remain a mystery to this day. Utah’s state archaeologist calls in Time Team America to examine some of the most pristine and puzzling archaeology in the United States. The team probes the ground, scales the cliffs, and learns what life was like in these canyons a thousand years ago.

Nova
While NASA astronauts were captivating the world with the Apollo lunar landings, the U.S. was engaged in a top-secret military manned space program. Now, investigative author Jim Bamford (acclaimed author of The Puzzle Palace ) probes the untold story of the elite corps of clandestine astronauts who were never told the true purpose of their training program. Bamford travels to Russia to reveal the secrets of the Soviet response — the prototypes of the “Almaz” military space stations that, if deployed, might have led to a Cold War showdown in outer space. Watch online or get web-only extras at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/astrospies/

Nova ScienceNow
A team of NASA scientists who will smash two SUV-sized rockets onto the lunar surface and unleash a debris cloud to study data that could provide the key to understanding how to build a permanent base on the moon; microbiologist Jack Griffith, who made a phenomenal discovery — the oldest known organic molecules on earth; research on an Australian songbird called the zebra finch, shedding light on the neuronal processes that lead from understanding sounds to producing them; and a profile of climate scientist Lonnie Thompson, aka Tropical Ice Core Man. Find out more about the Moon Smasher at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/0405/01.html

As the sole witness to a dying man’s enigmatic last words, a young adventurer seeks to solve the riddle they pose by forming an unlikely alliance with Miss Marple on Masterpiece Mystery! at 8 p.m. Sunday.

John Ott believes he may have a piece of Amelia Earhart’s airplane. The History Detectives at 8 p.m. Monday test the fragment to see if Ott truly has a piece of Earhart’s plane.more →